Looking for great business ideas from Sudbury
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The smOffice contest wants to hear from you
Keenan Kusan, For The Sudbury Star
A national contest for start-ups is looking to Sudbury and across Canada for the next big thing in business.
The second-annual smOffice contest is selecting two entrepreneurs from their area of Barrie, as well as one winner from across Canada.
The winners will receive a plethora of prizes, including six months of office space and accommodations in Barrie, seed funding as well as support from the various sponsors and mentors of the program.
Those mentors and sponsors vary from $1,000 cash, legal and accounting assistance to pizza to fuel the entrepreneurs innovative ideas. The total prize pool is estimated at over $60,000.
Chad Ballantyne, owner of TheCreativeSpace, which is hosting the event, said that this model is more supportive than just receiving money.
"I always say don't ask for money, ask for advice. It's worth more," said Ballantyne. "That's what we're showing with the mentors and it creates the foundation for investors to see the value of the business."
Ballantyne also said this community approach is a lot stronger than the Dragon's Den-styled model.
"We feel the best way to launch a company is via the community," said Ballantyne. "It's a more holistic approach."
Ballantyne said he is hoping to see applications from communities like Sudbury that have something new to bring to the table.
"Our ideal candidate needs to be innovative," he said. "If there's a problem or next-to-impossible issue and they're trying to solve it, that's something we're excited about."
He said start-ups, lifestyle or service-based companies are all welcome to enter.
Last year's winner, Shelby Taylor of Stayner, Ont., fit the profile perfectly for the panel of mentors and judges.
Taylor pitched her idea of Chickapea Pasta. She wanted to create a gluten-free, raw and organic alternative to paste in which Ballantyne said was a clear winner. SmOffice helped Taylor go from an idea to production in the six months she spent in Barrie.
"We've been moving along like crazy," said Taylor in a release. "The smOffice contest was instrumental in connecting me with mentors, sponsors and just giving me the confidence to go forward and connect with the people I need to make this happen."
Ballantyne said he's hoping to have even more mentors this year with a total of eight.
"They span the spectrum of needs and experience, and it's a great range of expertise," he said. "A lot of them have come back from last year as sponsors to be both sponsors and mentors. Almost every sponsor from last year as returned, too."
The goal of the smOffice contest, he said, is to help show entrepreneurs that there isn't a need to be in the big city to start a successful business.
He also said with interest from Startup Canada, he'd like to take the idea national.
"We've talked about it to other communities," said Ballantyne, "we think it's something that can be duplicated. It'd just be a matter of trying to package it up and make it like a just-add-water style."
For more information visit http://www.smoffice.ca, or visit http://smoffice.ca/criteria/ to submit an application. The deadline is May 2.
sud.editorial@sunmedia.ca